What Is at Stake for Retirees in Health Care Debate

Today Medicare celebrates its 44th anniversary. As we honor Medicare's success -- it has reduced senior poverty by two-thirds -- it is also an opportunity for retirees to become more aware of what is at stake for them in health care reform.

The Alliance for Retired Americans, a progressive grassroots advocacy organization, will today hold 30 events around the country to mark Medicare's birthday and advance a pro-retiree agenda for this year's health care debate.

What can the health care bill do to help current and future retirees? Here are a few ideas:

Help Early Retirees. Over five million Americans age 55-64 do not have health insurance. People in this age group should be able to buy-in to Medicare so they can see a doctor more often, especially for preventive care.

Close the Donut Hole. The "donut hole" coverage gap in Medicare Part D means that each year about one in four seniors will spend several months paying full price for their prescriptions while still having to pay their premiums.

Make Long-Term Care Affordable. We must make sure the health care bill includes the CLASS Act by Senator Ted Kennedy and Representative Frank Pallone. It would create an insurance program to help middle class families with the cost of long-term care.

Help Continue Retiree Benefits. If we eliminate the tax benefit for employers who provide insurance, I am worried that retiree health care will become yet another broken promise. Many of us sacrificed wage increases over the years in exchange for these benefits.

Hold the Insurance Companies Accountable. A "public plan" option would put pressure on the private insurance companies to keep their premiums and business practices in check. If they are truly doing the best they can, why should they be worried about a little healthy competition?

We are beginning to see misleading and divisive attempts to scare seniors. Representative Ginny Brown-Waite (R-FL) recently took to the House floor to declare that the House Democrats' health bill, "essentially said to America's seniors: Drop dead." It's time for Washington to move beyond these Karl Rove-style tactics of divide-and-conquer.

Not only do retirees have a lot at stake in the health care debate, but we also worry about our children and grandchildren in these difficult times. Working together, we can create a health care reform plan that helps Americans of all ages.

Barbara J. Easterling was elected president of the Alliance for Retired Americans in February of this year. She was previously the secretary-treasurer of the Communications Workers of America. For more information, visit www.retiredamericans.org or call 1-888-633-4435.

Comments

[newretirement]

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[jmpurser]

If you're really interested in helping retirees then support HR 676, the single payer bill. President Obama's plan has no cost controls, no major reforms, and is a massive welfare plan for the insurance industry. It actually takes the world's most expensive health care system (for want of a better term) and makes it MORE expensive! And he needs to pay for it by cutting medicare.

Wake up and support single payer before the retirees get sold down the river like the rest of us.

[saveretirees]

I was really happy to read Barbara Easterling's suggestions on Health Care. She alerted the readers to the fact that many workers Health Care Benefits are earned over many years of labor. These Earned Benefits are part of the workers total compensation package. These Earned Benefits are not a hand out but are a debt owed by corporations to retirees. Many retirees are suffering greatly for many reasons. This is why retirees need their Earned Health Care Benefits protected. This can readily be done by including HR1322 in the wording of HR 3200. HR 1322 is an amendment to ERISA which will protect all retirees with Earned Health Care from losing these Earned Benefits. This is beneficial to ALL taxpayers as HR 1322 will prevent corporations from dumping their debt on the taxpaying public.

[BuzzingAlong]

So, what is the Alliance for Retired Americans doing to counter the republican lies to seniors that health care reform means that the government is going to come to kill them?

Personally, I cannot imagine that anyone would be so clueless as to believe something like this. Is this what happens when when you retire, you lose your ability to think rationally?

[Nomccain]

They'd better be VERY CAREFUL because Seniors are going to become a large percentage of the voting population very soon, if not already. With that in mind, the seniors are going to watch this bill carefully and WHO votes FOR and AGAINST it and remember how they voted at the polls.

[bronceye]

The GOP talking points have changed from "they" want to kill your children and grandchildren to "They" want to kill YOU!!! That's what they retirees to think about. My 86 yr. old mother has swallowed the bait. How bout you?

[BuzzingAlong]

I truely don't understand how it is possible to believe such a thing.

So, what are you doing to explain things to your mother?

[hsr0601]

According to the CBS/New York Times poll, survey respondents get nervous about the low quality after the reform.

In case you are a doctor, and your pay is dependent upon your patient's outcome, you will strive to prescribe the best medicine for your patient, let alone avoiding unnecessary cares, and hope your patient will feel better as quickly as possible.